Giant Recon HL 200 front light

Giant's new Recon HL 200 is great for commuting and as backup to a main front light, with good brightness including side-on visibility, a smart design with a rugged clamp, and useful modes.

• Pros: Bright, run-times, secure clamp, waterproof, compact, easy to use, smart modes
• Cons: There are better value front lights, overly secure clamp

As the name suggests, the HL 200 is a compact twin-LED design providing 200 lumens output. The lens is designed to focus and disperse the light with 270 degrees of visibility thanks to two strips in the side of the light unit.

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It's jolly bright, too: 200 lumens is more than enough to alert other road users to your presence, and just about enough to see where you're going on a dimly lit road, though it is intended as a light to be seen by. If you need a front light for seeing with, Giant offers brighter options – the HL 500 for £39.99, HL 700 for £59.99 and HL 900 for £79.99.

Giant has used the common silicone band and hook clamp method, with a curved and rubber-coated section to fit snugly against the handlebar. I've used it successfully on different bikes with no problems. The orientation can also be flipped to have the light vertical or horizontal as you need. I went vertical as that took up less space.

The only problem arises when trying to detach the light from the clamp to take it indoors for charging. It's a bit bloody difficult, to put it bluntly, and I resorted to whipping the whole clamp and light off as it's much easier. On the plus side, the light is fixed very securely to the bike and doesn't wobble. Giant also offers an out-front handlebar mount using a GoPro-style interface for £6.99.

A power button is located on one end and the USB charge port, under a rubber flap, on the other.

The light has six modes to choose from: two steady, two flashing and two smart modes.

Smart modes aren't a new thing on lights, quite a few brands use sensors to automatically adjust the brightness to suit the conditions. The Recon's two are a daytime running mode and a night-time mode, offering between 6 and 10 hours' run-time. The smart mode will automatically switch from steady to flash at night, and according to Giant allows motorists to see you from as far away as 1km.

Run-time is 3 hours on 200 lumens, and up to 30 hours on the 10-lumen low flash mode. It remembers the last mode you used, when you switch it back on.

The run-times I recorded in testing match up well with the claims, with the light delivering what was expected in the high steady mode. The choice of modes is adequate to ensure the light lasts several days or up to a week, depending on the distances you cycle daily.

Lights need to survive the UK's bad weather, and the HL 200 is waterproof-rated to IPX7 (immersion in 1 metre of water for 30 minutes). My testing has included lots of riding in the rain and a combined test of directing the hosepipe at the light during the daily bike wash as well as dropping it into a bucket of water. It still works fine.

> Buyer's Guide: The best 2019/2020 front lights + beam comparison

The Recon HL 200 costs £34.99, and it does offer good performance and usability, but you can get better value elsewhere.

It's a fiver more than the Lezyne Mini Drive XL, for example, which offers twice the brightness and is compact and easy to use, although its run-time is a bit limited.

The Infini Tron 300 front light costs the same as the Recon but is brighter with a 300-lumen output, and is similarly compact with good run-times.

Verdict

Excellent brightness, run-time and overall design, if not the best value